The association between different traumatic life events and suicidality
Open accessAbstract
Background: Traumatic life events have been associated with increased risk of various psychiatric disorders, even suicidality. Our aim was to investigate the association between different traumatic life events and suicidality, by type of event and gender.Methods: Women attending a cancer screening programme in Iceland (n = 689) and a random sample of men from the general population (n = 709) were invited to participate. In a web-based questionnaire, life events were assessed with the Life Stressor Checklist – Revised, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) criterion was used to identify traumatic life events. Reports of lifetime suicidal thoughts, self-harm with suicidal intent and suicide attempt were considered as lifetime suicidality. We used Poisson regression, adjusted for demographic factors, to express relative risks (RRs) as a measure of the associations between traumatic events and suicidality.Results: Response rate was 66% (922/1398). The prevalence of lifetime traumatic events was 76% among women and 77% among men. Lifetime suicidality was 11% among women and 16% among men. An overall association of having experienced traumatic life events with suicidality was observed [RR 2.05, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.21–3.75], with a stronger association for men (RR 3.14, 95% CI 1.25–7.89) than for women (RR 1.45, 95% CI 0.70–2.99). Increased likelihood for suicidality was observed among those who had experienced interpersonal trauma (RR 2.97, 95% CI 1.67–5.67), childhood trauma (RR 4.09, 95% CI 2.27–7.36) and sexual trauma (RR 3.44, 95% CI 1.85–6.37), with a higher likelihood for men. In addition, an association between non-interpersonal trauma and suicidality was noted among men (RR 3.27, 95% CI 1.30–8.25) but not women (RR 1.27, 95% CI 0.59–2.70).Conclusion: Findings indicate that traumatic life events are associated with suicidality, especially among men, with the strongest association for interpersonal trauma.
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Victims of interpersonal violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and childhood trauma have a substantial increase in likelihood of suicidality.
“Victims of interpersonal violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and childhood trauma have a substantial increase in likelihood of suicidality.14, 15, 16, 17”
From Global, regional, and national burden of suicide, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 (2025) · cites this paper as [14]
Mental disorders, substance use, trauma or violence, social and cultural factors, ease of access to lethal means, poverty, and deprivation are important potential contributors to global suicide incidence.
“The combination of these risk factors—mental disorders, substance use, trauma or violence, social and cultural factors, ease of access to lethal means, poverty, and deprivation10, 14, 18, 19, 22, 24—are all important potential contributors to global suicide incidence.”
From Global, regional, and national burden of suicide, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 (2025) · cites this paper as [14]
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“Furthermore, they seem less likely to seek help for mental health problems after trauma (Möller-Leimkühler, 2002), which may leave untreated symptoms more likely to develop to suicidality.”
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- Authors
- Ásgeirsdóttir, H. G., Valdimarsdóttir, U. A., Þorsteinsdóttir, Þ. K., Lund, S. H., Tomasson, G., Nyberg, U., Ásgeirsdóttir, T. L., & Hauksdóttir, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Iceland (IS)
- Harvard University (US)
- Research Institute in Emergency Care, The National University Hospital of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
- Centre of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
- Karolinska Institutet (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Ásgeirsdóttir, Hildur G.
- ORCID
- Venue
- European Journal of Psychotraumatology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2018-01-01
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1510279-1510279
- ISSN
- 2000-8066 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6136384
- OpenAlex
- W2891656458
- Cited by
- 68
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 7.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- European Journal of Psychotraumatology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Hirsla (Landspítali University Hospital) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Rannis Research Fund (130611-051)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Keywords
- traumatic life events, suicidality, suicide risk, childhood trauma, sexual trauma, interpersonal trauma, gender differences, self-harm, suicide attempts
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